Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

hey there fellas and those magnificant woman thats ride,

As the topic says this topic isnt exactly top priority on most riders minds,but in saying that my 2003 zx12 is my only transport,

There are a few mods on the bike which were on it when i got the bike which is a full yoshi exhaust and a power comander (i have been told that if i want to keep the exhaust i need the pc)

I was getting roughly 110k per 13ltrs which i think is awfull, Thats withough being a hard rider furthest i have had it is 9200rpm in first and 8500 in second and thats not very often only really on my weekend rides which i dont count . So i got it re mapped buy doing bikes ,the bloke said it wasnt mapped at all and as i knew was a distinct rich fuel smell from the exhaust and i have only added about 10k to the tank (hit 171hp at 11500rpm).

If anyone else has had this same problem and overcome it could you please help (will help keep the missus of my back with the running cost )
cheers James

...awful

maybe have a look at this thread
http://www.ksrc-au.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 46&t=20154



oh...and welcome


cheers

Smitty

Have you tried riding it below 11500rpm.
Something a miss me thinks.
O and welcome too.

jamster85 wrote:.....If anyone else has had this same problem and overcome it could you please help (will help keep the missus of my back with the running cost .....

The only way to deal with it, is sell the 12 and get a ZX9R. They get way better economy.

There is no way to turn the ZX12 into an economical bike (Smitty's excepted) - with the mods you have, you may be able to get the PCIII mapped to a lean setting to squeeze a few more k's out of a tankful.....but the reality of owning a 12 is that fuel economy comes a distant second to the *Brain Melting Power Zone* as the Hoffinator so eloquently puts it !

220-240km around town is the norm, once the last block starts to flash. The link that Smitty has put up has some good stories about fuel economy on a barge...

Yeah, 240 per tank is about right. Perhaps the air filter is dirty?

Mate, should not be that bad..

I get 240k's to 250k's from a tank 260k's it's dry, normal riding. Which is on par with most litre bikes. I think your PC may be affecting your range..

It should be noted the fuel guage is extremely pesimistic..when the last bar starts flashing you still have a good 50k's left worth of juice with normal riding. Mine starts flashing around 200 - 210 all the time.

Forgot to mention, owning a 12 is all abount the *Brain Melting Power Zone* anyhows...stop your whingin'

hoffy wrote:Forgot to mention, owning a 12 is all abount the *Brain Melting Power Zone* anyhows...stop your whingin'

Hoffmeister you are back ...nuffing has changed...

jamster85 wrote:hey there fellas and those magnificant woman thats ride,

As the topic says this topic isnt exactly top priority on most riders minds,but in saying that my 2003 zx12 is my only transport,

There are a few mods on the bike which were on it when i got the bike which is a full yoshi exhaust and a power comander (i have been told that if i want to keep the exhaust i need the pc)

I was getting roughly 110k per 13ltrs which i think is awfull, Thats withough being a hard rider furthest i have had it is 9200rpm in first and 8500 in second and thats not very often only really on my weekend rides which i dont count . So i got it re mapped buy doing bikes ,the bloke said it wasnt mapped at all and as i knew was a distinct rich fuel smell from the exhaust and i have only added about 10k to the tank (hit 171hp at 11500rpm).

If anyone else has had this same problem and overcome it could you please help (will help keep the missus of my back with the running cost )
cheers James

So before getting it tuned you were getting nearly 12L/100km and now around 11L/100km. That's pretty excessive fuel consumption. Mine averages around 6.5L/100km. The worst I've had is 8L/100km but that was giving it a bit of a workout. I'd start by checking the spark plugs and air filter.

Depending on how I ride (town, highway, hills, pillioning, touring with gear, etc) it seems to go 190-250 with a few odd tanks where I use heaps or cover heaps of ground... but generally 210-230 before I feel the need to fill up... which is generally at or around the point it starts flashing.

That said though I rode to Dayboro at night on Friday at a constant 100km/h with myself <75kg and my girlfriend at ~50kg (togehter, about the same as some of the big bastards I've seen riding a 12R). So anyway the fuel gauge has eight bars, and juuuuust as the third bar ticked off it hit 108km... so assuming each bar is the same and applying some basic maths...

108km / bars 3 = 36km per bar
36km x 8 bars = 288km per eight bars

...it should do 288km off the eight bars, before the last one starts flashing, and have 36km to go off that last flashing bar... being a theoretical total of 324km from a tank in a fairly ideal 100km/h cruise on a pleasant but cool night. Applying some more basic maths working with a tank being 20 litres (I think? or 21? I'll use 20...):

20lt / 324km = 6.17lt/100km

Smitty claims 17lt at constant throttle gets him to PI so:

6.17lt / 100km = 16.2km per litre
16.2km x 17lt = 275.4km from Smitty's 17lt... I'm getting much the same fuel consumption as Smitty on cruise.

Unrealistic for an 'around town' tank where 210-230 would be more on the money as you're doing a lot more stop/start riding.

yeah im a big bastard hence the 12 decicion otherwise would of gone the 9 just seems a bit nicer riding position on the 12

oh and btw i red lined 1st-4th the other day and changed from 98 to 95 octane seems a bit more toeye and getting arround the 190ks now around town (seeings its a daily rider) but in saying that i usually dont get out of 3rd so next long ride i do should be a good test

sorry to say,,but if you have a 12r stuff fuel usage,,,go the power,,,no use wandering about fuel usage you buy the 12r for it's huge power

Now that the weather is a bit warmer and I'm riding my bike non stop again I noticed its fuel consumption jumped to 8L/100km, and that's just freeway riding! Its been sitting in the garage a few months without getting ridden, so I guess that doesn't help. I did a bit of reading and came across some people having good results with Techron 5000 (injector cleaner). It's only $12 from Caltex servos, so I figured it can't hurt. I've just gone through a bottle of this stuff and measured my fuel consumption after going for a ride to Melbourne and back with a bit of a fang on some twisty back roads. After filling up I noticed it's only chewing 5.7L/100km!!! I'm pretty impressed as I was about to fork out $80 for a new set of spark plugs. Now it's using the same amount of fuel as my girlfriends 600!

I've been reading through the posts from Jamster85 and I was getting a little worried there as I'm going to put a Power Commander on mine and it's a 2000 mod but she can go through some fuel when you ride it hard, but I use to think it was good commuting to work everyday but not when your tyres costs a pretty penny & services, but it gets about 250 out of a tank most times I ride but it all depends on when you need to fill up to get home and they will tend to use more juice when you have a full tank as you more weight to contend with. But I always use Premium or the higher Premium too which I think she gets more milege out of the better one. I don't commute on mine anymore and bought a Hyundai Getz 08 mod and that gets twice the milege compared to the bike (of course). Like the other bloke said stuff worrying about fuel and love the power.

Peter